Chapter 100

The kitchen was filled with the warm, heavy scent of toasted batter and maple syrup, a domestic sanctuary that felt impossibly distant from the cold damp of a forest floor. Kyle sat at the familiar wooden table, his attention focused entirely on the pancake in front of him. He tilted the plastic bear, watching a thick, amber stream of honey pool onto the center of the stack until it began to overflow, sluggishly trailing down the sides. A sharp, familiar weight of attention made him look up....